Creative Indian Restaurant Opens On The Upper West Side

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A new Indian restaurant is now fully open on the Upper West Side.

Baazi began welcoming customers at the end of January at 2588 Broadway (near 97th Street) in the former home of the popular Awadh restaurant, which was under the same ownership as the new Indian eatery.

Baazi is the latest project from chef and owner Gaurav Anand, who created the successful Moti Mahal Delux and Awadh eateries in New York City, as well as restaurants in New Delhi and Goa.

The new Upper West Side restaurant is a two-level space designed to evoke a Mediterranean feel that also has a heated 24-seat outdoor dining area.

There is no delivery or takeout as Baazi is "designed to be a restaurant dining experience."

Gaurav, who arrived in the United States 12 years ago, has a cooking style that "weaves in influences and ingredients from the Mediterranean and South Asia to offer unexpected flavors and lighter dishes," reads a news release.

Here are some of the highlights from the menu:

• Papad Kebab – a non-meat kebab made of fried hung Greek yogurt with papadam lentil cracker crust served in a custom made Baazi box (see below)
• Kali Kachori – urad bean & lentil dumplings, chickpeas, mint, yogurt, topped with charcoal cracker
• Butternut Squash Kofta with sweet corn curry, toasted pepitas and pumpkin oil
• Imli Glazed Lamb Ribs with a sticky sweet spicy tamarind-date sauce, dusted with cumin & coriander
• Prawn Kuzhambu – tamarind based dish from India’s southernmost region, Tamil Nadu, & Sri Lanka
• Chicken Cafreal – Portuguese Goan dish of cornish hen marinated with vinegar chilies and herbs, flambeed with the iconic Old Monk Rum
• Butter Kalan – a vegetarian take on Butter Chicken with local Catskills butter, mushrooms in a creamy sauce
• Cod Koliwada – a play on fish and chips that nods to the town of Koliwada, a well known fishing village near Mumbai, the cod is fried and served with Gaurav’s signature okra fries and Indian spice tartar sauce
• Roast Trout Recheado – recheado is a Goan spicy red masala paste
• Goat Laal Maas – spicy goat curry from Rajasthan in Northern India
• Jalebi Sandwich (dessert) – made to order Indian style sticky funnel cake with masala chai ice cream

You can check out the full menu on Baazi's website.

The word Baazi means "bet," and it references Gaurav’s decision to take a chance on a different, more sophisticated concept despite the challenges of the pandemic.

The new restaurant forgoes heavy dishes, hearty flavors, and powdered spices, instead choosing to focus on creative ways to coax natural flavors out of raw ingredients.

An example of this is Gaurav using whole roasted coriander seeds instead of powdered coriander at his new UWS restaurant.

You can find out more about Baazi on its website.